Dhoni's statement against match-fixing is a Rs 100-crore suit

On Tuesday, Mahendra Singh Dhoni finally decided he had had enough. The Madras High Court restrained two media companies - Zee Media Corporation and News Nation Network - from publishing or broadcasting for two weeks any stories linking Indian cricket team skipper Dhoni with any betting or spot/match fixing incident.

The court, in its interim order, also restrained the media companies from insinuating Dhoni’s honesty and integrity in a Rs.100 crore defamation case filed by the cricketer. Dhoni filed the suit against the media companies and also suspended Tamil Nadu police official G. Sampath Kumar.

The Indian captain in his suit had said that since Feb 11 Zee Media Corporation’s Zee News Channel, the channel’s editor and business head Sudhir Chaudhary colluded with the police official Kumar to telecast false news reports.

The reports insinuated that Dhoni was involved in betting and match/spot fixing cricket matches.

He said News Nation Network broadcast false information that he was summoned by the Tamil Nadu Police.

The suit also says, “The reports that were broadcast by the news networks revolved around IPL team Chennai Super Kings of which Dhoni is the captain and the alleged involvement of him in fixing devastated the reputation and image of the Dhoni and his image in the eyes of millions of fans all over the world.”

It is the kind of statement that one hoped Indian skipper Mahendra Singh would have made much earlier; a statement that would have put all his fans at ease.

It also shows the way to other cricketers/sportsmen. If they have a grouse against any news channel/paper, they can also approach the courts – a route that has generally being avoided in India for fear of a backlash.

The spot-fixing and match-fixing that hit the Indian Premier League in May 2013 has never quite gone away. The BCCI despite it’s ‘best’ efforts haven’t been able to come clean – one botched up inquiry lead to another inquiry by the Justice Mudgal Committee. There have been resignations, suspensions, rebuttals, clean chits and comebacks but all of India still has it’s eyes on the Supreme Court – which is due to hear the IPL fixing case on March 25.

Simply put, almost a year passed before Mahendra Singh Dhoni said anything about the scandal. Chennai Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming, Rajasthan Royals officials including Rahul Dravid and even N Srinivasan have come out with their views on the matter but the India skipper had maintained a stoic silence.

A silence that has been construed by many as a sign of mischief. But now, he was forced to respond. Former Tamil Nadu Superintendent of Police (internal security), G. Sampath Kumar had insinuated that a bookie alias Kitty, told him that ‘Meiyappan approached Dhoni and Raina in a party.’ The channels jumped over the news and since then there has been no let up.

Still, Dhoni had nothing to say.

As long as it was just talk, the Indian skipper couldn’t be bothered but now things had come to a boil and it was clear that this could hurt his commercial interests as well.

His statement against any involvement in the fixing scandal is a commercially powerful one and many of the other channels will now think twice before naming the CSK skipper in relation to the scandal without any concrete proof at their disposal. But why did he need to wait so long to do this?

As Tariq Engineer has mentioned earlier on Firstpost, the delay allowed speculation to ferment into something into something toxic. The BCCI and Dhoni could have easily nipped this in the bud.

However, D-day for Dhoni is still going to be March 25. The Mudgal Committee has submitted an envelope containing the name of players who should be investigated in relation to the match-fixing scandal. It is reportedly said to contain the names of six players including one who plays for India.